Editing

The penultimate stage in the pipeline is editing, this stage is vital to ensure that the animation is the best that it can be, it's a chance to remove anything that's not needed, or might be inappropriate and to ensure that it flows seamlessly from one scene to the next. In essence it is vital to make it a full animation, rather than a collection of random clips. Walter Murch a film and sound editor was quoted saying 'Film editing is now something almost anyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistance that any art form does.' This accurately sums up the skill required to be a truly great editor, it can be the difference between a great animation and a good one, whilst the scenes might be brilliant, the models almost human, the animation flawless, if they're thrown together in a hap hazard fashion they lose all context, all direction and all credibility, whilst it can be easy to get to the end of an animation and become excited at the prospect of having a finished piece, it's important to take your time and thoroughly think through the last stages of the pipeline as they are just as important as any other. There are a number of jobs in editing, because it's important to have a number of people working on the same thing so that they can act to check up on one another, what one may see as unnecessary another may feel is vital. However as stated above, it is similar to an artform to master the process and world class editors are as hard to come across as world class animators or artists. Having said all that, should the storyboard have been as detailed as it could have been, the editing process can be a fairly painless and efficient one, vital none the less.